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Sunday, January 20, 2013

Aisha Sarwari's speech at Faith Matters

Speech at Faith Matters Launch in Pakistan

Delivered on November 4th 2012 at Avari Hotel
I’d like to begin by thanking Faith Matters and its leadership, for
inviting me to speak on this very important topic of interfaith harmony
in Pakistan, and in particular between the Christian and Muslim
communities. The work that is being done on this platform is commendable
because we’ve got far too many examples of groups attempting to
dehumanize the “other,” and very few that work on the premise that
change is possible in civil society in Pakistan.

I feel Pakistan is moving in diametrically opposite ways.
On one hand we have the fact that we offer to the world a huge
opportunity. We are the 26th largest economy in the world with a 40
million middle class and GDP per capita in Karachi of 7000 US dollars.
We have 131 million cell phone users and over 100+ cable channels and
300,000 plus players in the retail market alone. Our fashion industry
has matured and parallels leading countries.
Yet, on the other there is a complete and utter breakdown.
Just a few weeks ago, Washington based think tank, Middle East Media
Research Institute (MERI) said Pakistan should be put on the genocide
watch list. The reason for these were many among which were:
Imprisonment of Christians and Ahmadi Muslims on charges of blasphemy
Abduction of Hindu and Christian girls and their forced conversion to Islam
Demolition and desecration of houses of worship
Denial of food relief to non-Muslim flood victims by both government officials and wealthy philanthropists
Denigration of and attacks on Christians
And the deliberate and systematic killing of members of all these minority communities[1]
What is tragic is that we are living in times where these communities
have no option but to convert and become Muslims. The reason this is a
tragedy of gargantuan proportions is because Islam is based on the
principle of freedom of choice and the Quran says that “There is no
compulsion in religion.” Surah 2 verse 256.
This violence against minority communities is not just carried out by
pockets of extremists but in a way it is imposed by the entire society
through its silence over these attacks. The absence of outrage from
civil society symbolized the deep rooted prejudice and exclusivisim that
has now become an intrinsic part of what it means to be Pakistani
today. And in the ghastly shadow of this silence, the attacks against
minorities spreads, becoming more extreme, more shocking, more shameful.
The most recent example is the case of a girl child, Rimsha Masih who
despite being down syndrome and a minor, was imprisoned like a common
criminal under charges of blasphemy. For days her fate was unclear and
the general argument from clerics was that if she had not allegedly
burned Quranic qaida and committed blasphemy then of course she should
be released. Very few were vocal about the absurdity of the blasphemy
law and its most common use as a weapon of persecution to wrongly
convict people one doesn’t get along with. The lethal abuse of the law
finds its victims in Muslims above all other communities but also there
are hundreds of Ahmedis, Christians, Hindus and mentally challenged are
suffering jail sentences under this law.
Thankfully Rimsha was released, but Asia Bibi was not that lucky, and many like her remain in jail.
History is replete with the examples of absolute tyranny of the
majority over the minority. But make no mistake, Pakistan is one of
those examples.
Why do I mourn this?
I mourn this for two reasons: One, I don’t have an England or America
to go back to. I returned from the US to be rooted in my own country,
and therefore my children and their children’s children are going to
live through the society we allow to develop today. And I am frankly
very afraid. Afraid that soon enough, despite being of mainstream Sunni
Islam faith it is only a matter of time that the all-pervasiveness of
this hegemonic ideology will turn on them too.
And two, this is not what we were set out to become. The idea of
Pakistan was not what the “Nazariati” idea that is now flaunted. This
idea was manufactured after the objectives resolution was passed and
after Zia-ul-Haq fueled the concept of an Islamic state through the
Afghan war in the 1970s.
The idea that this land was for Muslims by Muslims and the other
communities neither had a role to play nor will they be considered as
equal citizens of the state, barring them from holding the office of the
President or Prime Minster.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah wanted a secular democratic Pakistan, and though
there are constant attempts to revise history there are numerous
statements that outline his clear demand for Pakistan and I quote to not
become “A theocratic state ruled by priests with a divine mission.” He
wanted the state to have nothing to do with religion: His 11th August
1948 speech spells that out. “You are free. You are free to go to your
mosques. You are free to go to your temples or any other places of
worship. You may belong to any religion, cast or creed. That has nothing
to do with the business of the state.”
After the Gojrah incident, where Six Christians including a child
were killed and more than a dozen were injured when 40 houses and a
church were set ablaze by an angry mob of Muslims claiming to avenge a
blasphemy[2], there was more blood.
On March 2nd 2011, Shahbaz Bhatti, the federal minister of minorities from the Christian community was murdered. He was shot 25 times[3].
This is a recent example of the many church attacks in the past few
years. On October 18th, armed men vandalized the Philadelphia
Pentecostal Church of Pakistan in Karachi during a blackout. The
attackers broke the windows of the church, located in Karachi’s Essa
Nagri area, threw copies of the Bible on the floor.
The Christian community has been consistently targeted and led to a
corner in a country Jinnah promised them was theirs as much as anyone
else’s.
These experiences are appalling for Pakistan, not just because of the
blood, which has its own spiritual loss, but the utter shamelessness
with which the state has stood by and watched this carnage, seemingly
incapable of stopping it, unabashedly distanced and more or less
ambivalent.Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is what you DO with experiences that matter.
When Daniel Pearl was brutally murdered in Karachi, Judea Pearl, his
father chose to use that experience as a means to bring the Muslims and
the Jewish communities together. Today the Daniel Pearl foundation does
just that to promote interfaith harmony.
Horrid though these experiences are, let us cry halt here using their
destruction to caution the country. We do not want to go down that
path.
We need to address the real issues that give rise to religious intolerance. These are:

Weak judicial system leaving no recourse to justice for wrongly accused Christians

Religious clergy who promote hate speech in Friday sermons

The onus lies on Muslims to change the way they have looked at the
Christian community. There must be an urgent appeal to protect them
against this constant threat from extremism.
The only way to bring about change is through the political process.
Pakistanis need to vote intelligently and put pressure on their
political leadership to speak up against religious intolerance.
I would like to once again thank Faith Matters for being there as a light in such dark times.
To end I’d like to quote Khalil Jibran.“I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple,
pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is
the spirit. ”Thank you.AISHA FAYYAZI SARWARICommunication professional who has had experience in the
private sector, with the Punjab Government, the Federal government and
USAID. Previously in the US she has worked with CNN and National Public
Radio. She writes for the Daily Times and is on twitter @AishaFSarwari